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For Newark Valley family, toddler’s COVID-19 diagnosis changes Mother’s Day in an instant

Kali Little grew up celebrating the women in her life, piling into the car on Mother's Day with her parents and two sisters for stops to see her grandmother and great-grandmother at their homes in Vestal and Pennsylvania. She clutched bouquets of fresh flowers and kept warm pizza boxes from tumbling from the seat beside her as they drove.

She's a mom herself now, and the 24-year-old from Newark Valley had been looking forward to this Mother's Day. Not for herself, but for the chance to thank the two women she's so often turned to for advice and support as a young mom: her mother and grandmother. Especially these days.

Little has always felt blessed to have family living close by: her mom a few minutes down the road and her grandmother in Vestal. Even when they don't see each other, they call and text without fail, every day. And during the coronavirus pandemic, that emotional support has felt — as it has for many of us — like an essential lifeline.

She said the family connection has been a comfort in a world where our already-stressful and fragile lives can be upended with a simple cough or a telltale fever. She carried with her the nagging fear that everything can change in an instant.

On Friday, two days before Mother's Day, it did. They'd had colds, she thought — Kali, 3-year-old Tanner and 2-year-old Levi — but Tanner ran a fever for two days and Kali was concerned. She took him Thursday to see a doctor.

Little had only gone out to pick up groceries, and the boys hadn't been in public at all. Tanner and Levi's father, Kody Kuntzleman, is an essential worker in the lumber business who still goes to his job every day.

The call came the next morning: Tanner, a spunky toddler who's happiest outdoors or in the center of attention, had tested positive for COVID-19.

Across the country, millions are experiencing a Mother's Day like no other. Canceled travel plans, no special church services or group gatherings at the local cemeteries. No carrying bouquets and pizza boxes through Grandma's front door.

Macbeth was there when Kali Little was born, elated to witness her granddaughter's first moments in the world. As Kali grew up, Carrie Little remembers how her oldest daughter would look after her youngest, how well she later took to motherhood.

"It came very naturally to her," Carrie Little said.

Kari Little's first Mother's Day was a blur. Each year since, the holiday has marked a moment when she's grown increasingly grateful that her mom, grandma and even her great-grandmother, Helen Bennet, who lives in Pennsylvania, are there to support her.

Linda Macbeth and her grandson, Levi.(Photo: Photo provided)

"My mom and grandma are most definitely two of my best friends. I really wouldn’t know what I would do without them," Kari Little said. "I am the mom I am because of them. They are both always there for any advice or help I need."

She's gone to Macbeth for advice about "the tantrum years" and to Little for a chat when she feels "like I'm going crazy."

And in the pandemic, they've done what we hope all moms will do: support, listen and love without measure.

After Friday's call, Little needs that more than ever.

Tanner, she says, is doing well and already feeling much better, even jumping around the house. She's grateful for it, despite his frightening diagnosis and the new questions and fears it brings.

There will be more tests ahead for the family, quarantine that will mean loss of income, a Mother's Day spent worrying rather than celebrating.

Like so many across America, the three generations of mothers will spend this holiday apart. But they'll call each other like always, and exchange "I love you"s like sprigs of spring flowers, and navigate this new crisis the way they do everything else: together.